He moved to the city as soon as he could.

It was here he flipped his first railroad, the Rutland & Washington.

iCollector

The company's stock had plunged in the panic of 1857. Gould purchased most of the outstanding shares, turned the companies fortunes around by diligently repairing the line, and sold it for an outstanding profit.

So Gould was barking up a pretty tall tree. But he had an ally: Jim Fisk.

Fisk, in turn, had connections with Drew, and the three formed an entente to muscle out Vanderbilt.

Library of Congress

The Erie War, as historians came to call it, had begun. The trio ran their operation from Jersey City, just across the Hudson.

This was actually by necessity — the Erie Ring, as they had become known, had illegally flooded the market with 50,000 shares of Erie stock and had to go on the lam after Judge George G. Barnard issued an arrest warrant for their arrest for violating an injunction.

Their next trick would earn Gould his reputation as a legendary shark.

There was really only one guy he needed to go after though: Boss Tweed.

Library of Congress

Tweed, the head of the Tammany Hall Democratic political machine and a state senator, received stock, cash payments, and a seat on the Erie Railroad board of directors, and in return got the legislation passed.

He went on to acquire even more railroads, most famously the Union Pacific, which is still with us today.

The company's own website struggles with Gould's legacy, ultimately deciding he probably saved the firm:

He also practiced pitting one railroad against another, forcing the UP into consolidations, most famously the merger with the Kansas Pacific. Although consolidation was blamed for the UP's financial difficulties, it actually may have worked to the company's advantage. For better or worse, Jay Gould may have been ahead of his time. Buying rival lines as an act of self-defense would become standard practice among railroads by the 1880s.

Gould died in 1892. Many were relieved.

Others were somewhat more charitable.

Getty

The New York Reader editorialized, "It will have to be conceded, no doubt, that his character, as a whole, was not one to be held up for emulation and imitation to the youth of America. There were not enough of human sympathy and philanthropic impulse in it for that. Nevertheless there were strong lines of purpose and faculty in the intellectual make-up of Jay Gould which give him rank among really great men."